Question
Kelly- I don't know if I see them coming out for consoles per say but I think there are a lot of great Indie games coming out recently. I think the scene is shifting very quickly and the way that people are interested in buying games is changing at a very fast pace. You buy a game on your phone or you buy a game on Steam and I think the amount and the quality of Indie games is increasing and people are starting to become more open to seeing these games. They're something new, they're something different and the developers are engaged with their fans. I really think the Indie scene is on the cusp of something very interesting right now and I'm excited to see where it is going to go in the next year.
Question- With the popularity of Kickstarter, do you think it is easier for an average Joe like myself to create a game?
Kelly- I really think that helps because one of the things when I first started getting into the video game industry in general was I didn't understand where the funding came from. I always asked, who gives you money to make a game? And a lot of times for Indie developers, it comes from their friends and family or small investors. Kickstarter is a great way to go to your fans and say, hey I have this really good idea for a game. Here's our team, here is our people, here is what we can make for you and having people pitch in a couple of dollars to see something they like come to life is great.
Question- Do Indie games get enough attention? Does the genre lack proper advertisement?
Kelly- One of the things that happens with Indie games is that the people who are making the game are not marketing people. They don't have a marketing team, they don't have a press team so Indies are notoriously bad at getting press because that's not what's on their mind and that's not what they're worrying about. That's what the Indie Megabooth is here for, to help give them the exposure to the press that they maybe they can't handle on their own or they don't understand how to do. Having something like this could be very important for Indie developers because it helps them get noticed while also building a fan base.
Question- Is the Indie Megabooth unveiling any game that you think will get some major attention?
Kelly- Outlast is definitely scaring people and making some run out of the booth. It was announced very recently too. Within the Indie community, The Swapper is very well known but outside of that it doesn't have that much exposure.
Question- When you talk to people who just play Halo, how do or would you try to explain an Indie game? How would you explain that there are more genres and play styles out there?
Kelly- We have been trying to do something new where we match people to the type of games they like to play. We have volunteers with maps and on the back of those maps it shows information for the volunteers to use. It points out that oh, this game is a shooter, and that's a 2D platformer. It helps for when people come to us and say, these are the types of games I normally play and the volunteers show which Indie games match them. Do you like the fast pace do you like the co-op and trying to match them with a game that is similar to that of a triple-A game.
Last question- With the announcement of the PS4 and how developer friendly it is, will we see a huge selection of Indie games on the PlayStation Store?
Kelly- I hope so, the thing is that consoles are very cost prohibitive for Indies because there is a lot of time and money that needs to go into developing for consoles specifically. We the shift go towards Steam and mobile because it's easy to use. The announcement of the PS4 was interesting because Jonathan Blow was up there talking about his new game. He basically said hey, we understand that this is a growing market and we understand we haven't been able to accomodate that but we want to try.
If you are looking for updates on the Indie Megabooth you can find Kelly on Twitter, @KellyWallick